Two human trafficking suspects killed by mob in Madagascar

A crowd burned two Europeans and a local man alive on a tourist island in Madagascar because they suspected them of trafficking human organs after a dead child was found on a beach.

The men were hunted down and killed by residents on the island of Nosy Be, one of the Indian Ocean island's leading tourism hubs.

"They [the crowd] suspected them of organ trafficking," Madagascar police chief Desire Johnson Rakotondratsima said. "It appears that one of the foreigners admitted it in front of the local residents after they found the dead body of a child."

Local police commissioner Honoya Tilahizandry said the European pair "were killed and burnt on Ambatoloaka beach".

While local officials said both men were French, witnesses said one may have been Italian.

Hours after the Europeans were killed, a crowd on the island dragged the local man from a vehicle and threw him on a fire.